After playing through the Double Dragon series, I had looked up what else Technos had developed. All I can tell you is that River City Ransom aside, they hadn't done much that's worth discussing in any great amount of detail. Oh, and they pretty much went the way of the dinosaurs after 1997. Guess you can't just ride on the success of some overrated series forever... unless you consistently keep making games with that logo. But yeah, even though I said Technos hadn't done much worth discussing in great detail, there is one game that I thought was pretty good, and that's this one - Combatribes. Having played through it in the first time in years, I will admit that this is an alright beat em up, but you could probably do better.

Story: The Combatribes are a trio of fighters who head on over to New York, the center of evil in America, to check out some gang that controls all the street gangs known as Ground Zero, and beat the shit out of their boss so they can put an end to their reign of terror. Throughout their journey, they meet up with five goons that serve to protect this boss, but end up getting their asses handed to them, and they reveal the boss's location. Not much of a story, but at least there are some "cutscenes" between each level to try and give the game some kind of storyline... at least moreso than Super Double Dragon, so I'll give them an A for effort, but it's mostly your typical beat em up scenario. Oh well, at least there's a reference to The Warriors to be found...

Gameplay: Combatribes is a fairly basic beat em up. All you have to do is beat the everloving piss out of enemies. Yeah, that's about it. No platforming segments, no puzzle solving - just some wholesome beating the shit out of enemies. With that said, the enemies aren't just standard cannon fodder. They actually require a little bit of strategy. Some of them are basic cannon fodder, but others move around in patterns that can't be beaten by just mashing buttons, so it's up to logic to find a way to kick some ass. On top of that, you're not given much breathing space. You'll often be surrounded by thugs, and goons tend to have weapons, meaning that they have a lot of range, and you don't. Unfortunately, you can't do anything beyond punch, kick and charge. No hurricane kicks, no jump kicks, no hadukens or anything - just basic combos, throws and shit. I'm just glad that what it does as far as the campaign goes isn't half assed, or this game would actually be pretty *bleep*ing shitty and not worth your time.

Also, this game is pretty short. Each of the six levels consist of beating up a handful of thugs before you get a chance to beat up one of the hired goons. The goons can be tricky, no doubt about that, and you're only given one life per continue to balance out the shortness, but that doesn't stop the fact that there isn't much to this game. Okay, yeah, there is some lame 1-on-1 fighting thing (either against the computer or a friend), but it comes across as pretty... well, let's put it this way - what would make a fighting game seem more appealing? Being able to move in eight directions but not use anything beyond simple punch, kick and charge attacks? Or moving in only two directions, but being able to use special attacks? You be the judge - personally, I'd choose the latter because the former sounds really, really boring, and keep in mind, Street Fighter 2 was out at the time, so... yeah, *bleep* this.

Replay Value: With all of that said, there's no replay value to speak of. Sure, you could play through the main game with a friend for some slick two player action, but beyond that, this isn't a game worth playing more than once alone.

Controls: The controls aren't the easiest in the world to get used to. All four face buttons only do two things; punch and kick. Where's jump, block and counterattack? Well, you don't have the latter two, and jumping is done by pressing a face button while running, which is done by double tapping a direction on the d-pad. Here's the kicker, though - no jump kick! Go *bleep* yourselves, seriously... I mean, you made the Double Dragon series, and yet... *bleep* it, I really don't care anymore. The controls are good, but they're just set out so weirdly.

Graphics: This game looks pretty damn impressive. Well, the backgrounds look like what you'd expect in a 16-bit brawler. I mean, the streets? The interior of some fortress? Meh. At least they're drawn nicely enough, though given the fact that all the stages are small, well, you don't get much out of them. So it's up to the character models to make it up for it, and goddammit, do they get it right here or what? The animation flows very well without feeling sluggish, and the actual models look pretty sweet. It's not enough that you get to beat up thugs and clowns; you also get to beat up Joker impersonators! Seriously, one of the enemie types look like they all just watched Batman: The Animated Series and decided to paint their faces white, wear lavender suits and white pants. I'm surprised the Joker himself isn't the boss of this gang! But yeah, the amount of detail put into each of these enemies is pretty impressive, so at least while looking at the game, you'll be satisfied enough.

Audio: The soundtrack is pretty *bleep*ing good. It consists of some techno beats that manages to get the blood pumping while you do your business. This is probably one of the better soundtracks I've heard from a Super Nintendo game, especially since not only does it have quite an atmosphere, but it's also pretty damn catchy, mostly due to having their own identities as opposed to just being bricks in a wall. The only problem is that I wished they put as much effort in the rest of the game as they did here...

Overall: Combatribes could've been a fantastic beat em up. It had a solid production value behind it, and what was done as far as gameplay is concerned was done quite well too, not to mention pretty challenging. However, what it lacks is what destroys the game. No special moves? No option to block and counterattack? Honestly, there's nothing that gives this game any lasting impact, and most likely, it'll be played through once, finished, and then collecting dust for the remainder of this world's existence.